Paper to Product: 14.25 Oz. Cone Mills Denim

We're taking a field trip back in time to the heyday of denim. The year was 1908. Cone Mills was the largest supplier of denim in the world, manufacturing in their White Oak Plant in Greensboro, N.C. Picture a room about 10 football fields long with hundreds of shuttle looms rattling the wide plank oak floors beneath you.

Most of the denim being produced would soon be on a train west to San Francisco, where it was cut and sewn into blue jeans. The end product was simple, well made, affordable and indispensable to millions of working men.

Offshore manufacturing became all the rage and the machines fell silent. But who the hell says we can't go back to the good old days? One of the best denim factories in the world is still located in downtown San Francisco and Cone Mills White Oak plant is still making incredible denim. The only factor missing in the equation now is affordability - so how does $75 for a pair of top quality denim sound?